About The Artist

Hello! I am a fine arts painter, with a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. My primary painting medium is oil and alkyd, and mostly I work in a representational style. My greatest challenge as a painter is to capture the effect of light; and my greatest joy as a painter is to accomplish that. Many thanks to those readers who have been following this blog since Day 1 (May 19, 2008). To those who are visiting for the first time today...Welcome, and thanks for dropping by!

Sunday, June 27, 2010

This week I finished painting the different versions of my neighbor's palm tree, and this is the best of the three. As you can see, it's far from a "Wow!" painting. (I'll spare sharing with you the other two versions.)

I was reminded of a few previous lessons in painting, such as...Grass really isn't just green...It really is better to be outside en plein air, rather than standing in the studio looking out the window...Attempting something new—even more than once—doesn't always work out. (I've had this lesson many times in the past.)

Now I'm going to the garage to sand off these three panels. That's a skill I acquired a long time ago that comes in handy, too. (Always wear a mask, since the paint dust is deadly.)

Thursday, June 17, 2010

There are many lessons to be learned from art history. The lives of great artists are intriguing—how they struggled to create something new and visually exciting, what inspired them, who or what influenced them.

Artist Stuart Davis (1892-1964) is best known as an American Cubist painter. Although he started out on a traditional path of realistic painting, he decided to become a "modern" artist after seeing the work of Braque and Picasso at the 1913 Armory Show. He pursued this goal by mounting an eggbeater, electric fan, and a rubber glove to a table and painted only those items over and over for an entire year until he had mastered the lessons of European Cubism. Now that is discipline!

While working on the drawing of my neighbor's palm tree, I thought of several different painting "exercises" I wanted to try out. Rather than work up new subject matter, I am taking a lesson from Stuart Davis's methodology. I have underway three different versions of my neighbor's palm tree with the intention of doing something different with each one.

The version you see posted today is a value study done in black, white, and grays. The point of this exercise is to hone my skills in discerning and matching values. You'll also notice that I've changed the proportions of the various elements in the value study. I wanted less sky, so I made the house larger. There are many details that have been omitted too, since it's just a study. It's not too exciting yet, but we'll see where it goes.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

With the temperature and heat index over 100 degrees here in Florida, working outdoors is out of the question. However, I do have a very nice view of my neighbor's house from my studio. And my neighbors do have a nice tall palm tree in their front yard. So, why not just paint the view of out my window, sort of working en plein air from my nice cool studio? Works for me!

As I've mentioned in the past, when I am unhappy about how a painting is turning out, the problem is usually the drawing. I find that drawing is the best tool for really observing an object, getting the details, and gaining understanding of how a thing truly is. I find that I discover the beauty of an object just by drawing it.

So, I've begun my study of Florida trees with this drawing of my neighbor's palm. I'll be working up a small painting that I'll show you in my next post.

Monday, June 7, 2010

The Florida sunshine is so inviting for plein air painting, but the summer heat and humidity have kept me indoors for the past several weeks. In the meantime, I've been drawing, reading, and trying out some "experimental" stuff in the studio...most of which I will refrain from sharing with you, my dear readers. Let's just say, that some days I can't believe I actually learned anything in art school!

I did complete the little painting posted today. As mentioned in my last few posts, I have much to learn about painting the multitude of leafy greens in the Florida landscape.